CLAT 2020 UG

It was the strangest murder trial I ever attended, where the old woman was found battered to death. He was a heavy stout man with bulging bloodshot eyes. All his muscles seemed to be in his thighs. The clock had just struck two in the morning. Mrs Salmon in 15 Northwood Street had been unable to sleep: she heard a door click shut and thought it was her own gate. So she went to the window and saw Adams (that was his name) on the steps of Mrs Parker's house. He had just come out and he was wearing gloves. He had a hammer in his hand and she saw him drop it into the laurel bushes by the front gate. But before he moved away, he had looked up at her window. The fatal instinct that tells a man when he is watched exposed him in the light of a streetlamp to her gaze-his eyes suffused with horrifying and brutal fear, like an animal's when you raise a whip.
Mrs Salmon was called in the Court.
`And do you see the man here in court?'
[She looked straight at the big man in the dock, who stared hard at her with his Pekingese eyes without emotion.]
`Yes,' she said, `there he is.'
`You are quite certain?'
She said simply, `I couldn't be mistaken, sir.'
`Thank you, Mrs Salmon.'
[Counsel for the defence rose to cross-examine.]
`Now, Mrs Salmon, you must remember that a man's life may depend on your evidence.'
`I do remember it, sir.'
`Is your eyesight good?'
`I have never had to wear spectacles, sir.'
`You are a woman of fifty-five?'
`Fifty-six, sir.'
`And the man you saw was on the other side of the road?'
`Yes, sir.'
`And it was two o'clock in the morning. You must have remarkable eyes, Mrs Salmon?'
`No, sir. There was moonlight, and when the man looked up, he had the lamplight on his face.'
`And you have no doubt whatever that the man you saw is the prisoner?'
`None whatever, sir. It isn't a face one forgets.'
Then he said, `Do you mind, Mrs Salmon, examining again the people in court?
No, not the prisoner. Stand up, please, Mr Adams!
And there at the back of the court with thick stout body and muscular legs and a pair of bulging eyes, was the exact image of the man in the dock.
'Now think very carefully, Mrs Salmon. Can you still swear that the man you saw drop the hammer in Mrs Parker's garden was the prisoner and not this man, who is his twin brother?' Of course she couldn't.
[Excerpts from „The Case for the Defence‟ by Graham Greene]

The world has very few devices left to fight COVID-19 with, but technology remains one of them. Whether it is employing the state-of-the-art technology in the discovery of cures or vaccines, or traditional technology services to enhance health care and consultations, or even tools that keep people at home occupied/productive, it is clear that technology will serve humanity at one of its darkest moments. The pandemic has contributed, in no small measure, to the understanding of the myriad ways in which available technologies have not been put to better use, and presented people with multiple opportunities to harness these devices, techniques and methods to get on with life in the time of lockdown. Among the primary uses is telemedicine, rendered inexorable now, by the temporary paralysis brought on by a freeze on movement. The Centre‘s recent guidelines allowing for widespread use of telemedicine services came as a shot in the arm for telehealth crusaders in the country, among them the Telemedicine Society of India that has long been battling to use the technology in its complete arc to reach remote areas in India. This move finds consonance with the rest of the world where several nations, also deeply impacted by the pandemic, have deployed telemedicine to reach people who have been unable to come to hospital, to reduce footfalls in hospitals, and to even provide medical and mental health counselling to countless people. It was way back in 2000 that telemedicine was first employed in India, but the progress has been excruciatingly slow, until the pandemic. However, it does seem as if the medical community was only held back by the lack of legislation to enable tele consultations. For no sooner was the policy announced, than hospitals and clinicians hurried to jump onto the bandwagon, advertising contact information for patients. The advantages are peculiar in the current context, when putting distance between people is paramount, as tele consultations are not barred even when health care professionals and patients may have to be quarantined. The advancement of telecommunication capabilities over the years has made the transmission of images and sound files (heart and lung sounds, coughs) faster and simpler. Pilot telemedicine experiments in ophthalmology and psychiatry have proven to be of immense benefit to the communities. Telemedicine‘s time is here, finally. While unleashing the full potential of telemedicine to help people, experts and government agencies must be mindful of the possible inadequacies of the medium, and securing sensitive medical information; such cognisance should guide the use of the technology.
[From an Editorial published in 'The Hindu' on April 17, 2020]